From the Principal

Getting involved - School Council

Thank you to those who nominated for School Council this year. We had a number of expressions of interest in both Council and associated working groups, and sincerely appreciate all offers of time and expertise. Further information about the nominations will be communicated shortly.

Annual General Meeting – Thursday 21 March

This is advance notice for you to put the Annual General Meeting of School Council in your calendar, so that you can attend to hear about the performance of the school throughout 2018. Further details will be forthcoming, but we are aiming to host it in our new Performing Arts building.

Building Northcote: Performing Arts building makes progress

We are working towards a handover of the building this week, with some furniture arriving shortly after. We will move in and set up across the remainder of Term 1 and start Term 2 with the space fully operational. It is truly a state-of-the-art facility, that we look forward to sharing it with our community – both within and beyond the school.

I am sure the students are going to be suitably impressed and highly appreciative of the teaching and learning spaces. The contrast between the new spaces and the existing spaces (if you exclude the newly refurbished Design and Arts hubs) is quite astounding. It provides further impetus for us to continue to advocate for the State government to provide further funding for the Master Plan to regenerate the remaining areas of the school.

I am meeting with some members of the school and broader community in the next fortnight to discuss possibilities for use of the Performing Arts building beyond school hours. If you know of community groups who may wish to hire the facility from Term 2 onwards, please contact our Business Manager, Sarah Burns.

Connecting with families

We aim to find as many meaningful opportunities as possible to connect with our families, to ensure the three-way partnership between students, school and families is strong and supportive.

The Year 12 Meet and Greet went extremely well on Thursday 7 February – it was a great turn out, with approximately 150 parents there, chatting with Tutors, subject teachers and the Senior and Students Services Teams. There was a real sense of collaboration. This will, of course, work in our students’ favour as they tackle this rewarding yet challenging final year of school.

The Year 7 Parent Workshop on Tuesday 12 February was also a huge success. The library was bulging at the seams. The Junior Sub-School Team, Audra Keane, Harriette Barclay, Annie van Eeden, our Digital Practice leader, Tennille Seary, and Assistant Principal, Katie Archibald, did a fabulous job supporting families to support their children in the transition to secondary school. It is surprising how many of our Year 7 parents have their first child starting high school. I estimate it to be slightly more than two thirds. This means that many of our parents are just as nervous, if not more so, than their children. It is our job to ease the transition of students and parents, and I feel confident we did so.

We have an opportunity, this year for the families of all year levels to meet the team most closely supporting them. By the time this newsletter is published, we will also have had our Year 8, 9, 10 Connect Afternoon on Monday 18 February, and be gearing up for the Year 11 Parent Forum on Wednesday 20 February.

The Year 7 Picnic - Wednesday 27 February 5.30pm

Finishing off with a bang, the last of the meet and greets for year levels is this one. There is food, music and quite the festive atmosphere, where Connect groups do a treasure hunt, clubs are on display and there is also a palpable sense of the connections forming (and reforming in some cases). We look forward to this highlight in our calendar. 

Identity and Community: School Uniform

School uniform conveys a sense of identity and community. In a school community the size of ours, where it is impossible to know everyone, and where we interface with inner city Melbourne so seamlessly, the uniform acts as a safety measure; we can easily identify those who belong to our school. It is also a large part of what represents us and our students in the broader community. We want our students to represent our school community equally well in their uniform as they do in their achievements; to wear it with a pride that reflects our pride in them.

As Principal it is my duty to uphold the policies and decisions of the School Council and the community we serve, and therefore ensure students wear their uniform in the matter intended.

The Year 7s have started the year looking fabulous in our new school uniform, and there are also many hundreds of students doing the right thing wearing the previous school uniform appropriately.

We are having some issues with a small proportion of students, who contravene our uniform policy. As a school we value fairness: this is not fair on those upholding our uniform expectations.  At the moment we have a blitz on the following items, and would appreciate support from home:

• Hoodies, windcheaters, jumpers of any variety. Students complain they are cold. There are however, a full range of warm items in the new uniform range, that will meet the needs of students. There is a school jumper and cardigan (in a new softer wool), a windstopper and a puffer jacket.
• Shirts unbuttoned – a large proportion of students wear their school shirt unbuttoned (or not at all) with a variety of coloured t-shirts and long-sleeved items underneath. Many students do not have buttons on their shirts. Undergarments are not supposed to be visible at any time. Buttoning up would help. A pale grey, short-sleeved undershirt (ie. one that will not be obtrusive) is also part of the new uniform, and may be worn under the buttoned shirt. Long sleeved t-shirts are not part of the uniform.
• Runners are only a part of the Physical Education uniform. School shoes, defined as all-black, polishable, 'business style' leather shoes, are to be worn. A less significant issue is wearing branded socks. Socks are supposed to be plain black.
• The other issue we face is that students wear parts of the uniform with an array of other items to and from school. There is an expectation that students are in full school uniform from the time they leave home, until the time they return home. If they are not returning home directly after school, and they don’t want to wear the uniform, they should change out of it completely, rather than wear a hotchpotch of casual and uniform items.

We cannot address these issues on our own, we need the support of parents. Some of the ways you can do so are:

• Make sure your child leaves the house in full school uniform. Have conversations and provide consequence if they do not
• If, on the rare occasion, your child is legitimately unable to wear uniform, please provide them with a note, so they can get a pass. Encourage your child to get a pass before class at the start of the day. 
  • If your child has grown out of uniform, or it is damaged, please purchase new uniform or repair it as soon as possible and provide a note. Support us if students are asked to change into freshly cleaned, temporary replacement uniform items, provided by the school.
• Support us by enforcing an expectation that students will not be able to attend excursions beyond school if they are not in full uniform.
• If we confiscate items of clothing, support us by letting your child know we have done the right thing.
• If your child receives a community service for failing to wear the uniform correctly, support us by encouraging/reminding them to attend, and when we provide further consequences if they do not.
• If you cannot support us meet the uniform expectations due to financial difficulty, please contact Leanne Petroff, Katie Archibald or your Head of Sub-School, to discuss ways that we can support you to do so.

Please support us with uniform compliance, so that we can focus on positive interactions about teaching and learning and on our students many achievements and their broader community involvement, leadership and successes.

UNESCO International Mother Language Day

Thursday 21 February marks UNESCO International Mother Language Day, which celebrates the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for peaceful and sustainable societies. As you would all know, we are situated on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation of Central Victoria, from Mount Baw Baw in the east to Mount Macedon, Sunbury and Gisborne in the west. The language of this area is known as Woiwurrung.

Did you know there are 11 government schools in Victoria that teach indigenous languages as part of their Languages program?

Production auditions complete

Congratulations to Jackie Brogan and Cindy Frost, who have just completed 159 Auditions for the main parts in this year’s production of Annie. That is no mean feat in such a short amount of time. We eagerly anticipate the announcement and the start of rehearsals. Being involved in a school production is one of the greatest experiences of high school, where cross age relationships form, and mentoring and leadership is developed. Aside from that it is an enormous amount of fun, discipline and commitment (from students and staff). This year we hope to stage our production in the new Performing Arts Building.